Fewer moose on the loose in Minnesota

Thursday

Dec 27, 2012 at 12:01 AMDec 27, 2012 at 11:27 AM

Fly over northeastern Minnesota with "Sky Dan" and you'd see a moose. One time, he spotted 15 of them during an hour flight. The pilot was so confident, he even offered those on his aerial tours a money-back guarantee. "If you didn't see a moose, you didn't pay," Dan Anderson, 49, said. No longer.

Fly over northeastern Minnesota with “Sky Dan” and you’d see a moose. One time, he spotted 15 of them during an hour flight. The pilot was so confident, he even offered those on his aerial tours a money-back guarantee.

“If you didn’t see a moose, you didn’t pay,” Dan Anderson, 49, said.

No longer. Anderson stopped providing refunds to customers in 2008. He was handing back too much money.

The state’s iconic moose population has been declining for years, a mysterious drop-off that pushed the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources this month to propose labeling moose a species of “special concern.”

“We need to pay attention to this species,” said Richard J. Baker, endangered species coordinator for the department.

The reason for the decline remains unknown, though experts have named some likely culprits, including climate change, parasites, disease, predators and nutrition.

“It could be a host of things,” said Lou Cornicelli, wildlife research manager for the Department of Natural Resources.

Cornicelli said moose aren’t trotting off to other states or Canada, either.

“The ones in our state are just dying,” he said.

For Minnesotans, those deaths hit home.

Moose are a cultural symbol of the wilderness and carry a certain mystique. The animal graces the signs of diners, bars, lodges and more.

Each fall, the city of Grand Marais holds its Moose Madness festival on a long weekend during moose mating season. “They do go a little crazy in the fall, which is a good thing if you keep your distance,” said Sally Nankivell, executive director of the Cook County Visitors Bureau.

Though the Minnesota moose is in trouble, experts say it’s premature to label the mammal a lost cause.

“It’s not a worry they are going to disappear yet. It’s more, ‘Let’s do what we can to get them back,’?” said Ron Moen, a wildlife biologist with the University of Minnesota-Duluth.